DC & New York: VI

Day two in New York began much like day one – I convinced David to make me breakfast while I looked over our itinerary for the day. Breakfast this day included some of our delicious leftover peppered cheese. It was great.

After our relaxing start to the morning, we took off for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As we’d already ‘done’ European art in DC, and can see it any time we wish, we decided to focus our time on their American art exhibits. I felt a bit like over-privileged euro-trash being able to pass up on the opportunity to see the Met’s ancient/medieval art collection, but it seemed pretty stupid to come all the way to America and not see the best of what they had. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take any photos inside the galleries, but I found the scores of period rooms to be the highlight of my visit there. It’s so much more interesting to see beautiful pieces of furniture and plate in context. The Tiffany collection was also fantastic.

One of the few things we could take pictures of -- a beautiful display by Tiffany

We devoted our afternoon to more sightseeing/shopping. We headed back to the East Village (we actually spent most of our time out this way, which was totally unplanned) to look in a few more book/comic stores (like Forbidden Planet). We also went to a quaint little toyshop called Dinosaur Hill, which was part of my quest to buy the baby its first toy while we were on vacation. On our way back to the subway, David spied a Ukrainian diner so we decided to pop in for our afternoon tea. After a mere five minutes in Veselka, we discovered it was going to be the place that ensured the East Village was where we’d spend the most time. I think I could have eaten there every day if possible. Not wanting to overdo it, however, we decided to stick to coffee/hot chocolate and split a dessert. We tried kutya, a sort of sticky Ukranian pudding made with wheatberries, nuts, and various other delicious things. 

En route to the subway

curves!

We had tickets to see the opera L’elisir d’amore at the Met, and decided that since we were so full from lunch and our afternoon tea it would make the most sense to pick up food to make at the flat once the opera was finished. So we journeyed to midtown West and the kosher deli Zabars. En route David spotted a bookstore across the street, which led to me finding a Southern cookbook from a place called Lynchburg... yup. After I hauled David out of the store we went to experience the treats of Zabars, which for a kosher deli had a surprising amount of shellfish, pork products, and meat stuffed with dairy. We bought some sweet potato knishes to snack on at the opera, and then raced down to Lincoln Square so that we could get there in good time.

This was our second epic opera adventure for the year, which makes up for last year’s complete lack of opera. Our household is divided on which was better, a debate which combines both individual musical tastes and artistic sensibilities. I preferred our experience at the Royal Opera, David thus preferred the Met! I must agree with him that the set was beautiful—a wonderful dreamscape of pastels that made one happy to look at. And this opera was a comedy, so we were kept well-entertained. I was glad to have seen it, as it is a lesser known one. My main quibble with the Met is that the surtitles appear in the back of the chair in front, making them damned hard to read if you’re also trying to watch the stage. But the music, the performance, and the set were all spot on. Having now seen operas at two of the world’s big opera houses this year makes it a very good one for us, and we are both feeling quite spoiled.

After the opera, disaster! Due to engineering works (as they say in London), we couldn’t take the subway back to our neighbourhood. It seemed as if every train we found was going to bypass our station. A journey of 15 minutes soon spread into 60, and eventually we got as near as we could and just walked the rest of the way. I was really thankful that we had picked up a bunch of reheatable food at Zabar’s, since I was starving by the time we got in and wasn’t handling the whole not knowing how to get home thing that well. It felt so good to just relax with hot food, Seinfeld playing in the background, and start the great debate about which opera experience was better.

Christmas

Both this blog and my personal journal are horribly behind when it comes to capturing all the big events we’ve had this year. Even so, I keep feeling that I haven’t done anything. Yet when I look back I find that I haven’t even said much, or anything, about the Christmas season. It was a big year for us but celebrations were kept to a minimum as I did not have the energy to do much. 

A little bit of decorating...

Fairy lights always brighten up the grey months.

The tree is definitely *not* moving with us, but my special foil star is!

My favourite Christmas cookies. I spent the weekend making them whilst David was at Windsor.

David had a big birthday, but with our friends and family either gone for the holidays or stuck in Canada we just had a private celebration (we’re hoping to get to Canada for a visit after he is granted his PhD and then we’ll have a big party to ring in everything). Prior to Christmas, he at least got to spend a weekend away at Windsor Castle as part of his scholarship. He stayed at Cumberland Lodge, which featured in both The Kings Speech and in the actual abdication (his room was above the room where the abdication message was broadcast). We had a very spoiled Christmas morning, especially once we started opening the big packages that came from our families. 

 

My husband also took his thoughtfulness to a new level, giving me a beautiful cameo of the Madonna & Child.  

 

David oversaw most of the Christmas dinner cooking, as I was struggling to feel up to cooking. He did a great job, following a Gordon Ramsey recipe for his goose. 

It's not burnt--that's just carmelisation from the honey sauce on it :)

Christmas Dinner--our dear friend Anne joined us

Boxing day saw our usual tradition of going out to see a movie. New Years was also very quiet—we had been planning to go up to the highlands with a few of our friends, but between saving money for the baby and my total lack of energy we decided to keep a low profile.We kept our usual tradition of the New Years Day brunch, and managed a spot of good luck in the walk home where we saw a water rat out for a morning stroll in Jesus Ditch.

Ratty!

It was strange to think that this would be our last Christmas in this little flat, and also our last Christmas with just the two of us. Next Christmas so much will be different, and it reminds me of how glad I am that I did not know my last Christmas with my family would be the last in that form. It is too easy to spend time mourning what has not yet passed.

The highlight of the Christmas season for me was my Christmas present to David (and myself)—two tickets to go see La Traviata at the Royal Opera in London. My boss let me rearrange my work hours so that I could get to London in the late afternoon, and the opera was on a Friday which meant that I could just relax and enjoy the evening without dreading how tired I’d be the next day. We had a great pub supper (I found food I could eat! This was an accomplishment!) and then browsed in a few antiquarian bookstores on our way to the opera house. The opera experience was marvelous. Being the Royal Opera, even the stage curtains have the Queen’s monograph on them. The sets were incredibly intricate and involved actual changes, not just rotations, between scenes. The costuming was superb. The dress worn by Violetta for the opening ball scene was incredible—snowy white and glittering with hundreds of crystals. And of course the music was good too (it’s one of my favourite operas). There was champagne at intermission, and that gave me a chance to snoop and see the extravagant amounts they were charging for sandwiches (£11 for a little tray!). I was surprised at how under-dressed most of the London crowd was, compared to my opera outings in Canada. Many people had clearly just come from work. It at least meant I did not feel under-dressed as I had worn a nicer-than-usual outfit to work that day, but certainly no ball gown.

It was the best experience I’ve ever had at the opera. I had been somewhat apprehensive beforehand, because my Toronto opera experiences were always such a disappointment. It was nice to know that I could go to an even bigger (and better) city and get the opera experience I want, not some modern artsy interpretation. Seeing David’s face when he opened his opera ticket package on Christmas morning was also priceless, as I had spent several months telling him that it was nearly impossible to get affordable seats at the Royal Opera as we had missed purchasing when the season opened so it might be one of those things on our ‘to experience’ list that we’d have to forgo.